EXCLUSIVE: David James on playing in Iceland, the freezing cold island with eight million puffins... and one new football hero

The steep cliffs of the Westman Islands and the blizzard of seabirds shrink into the distance as David James finds a quiet corner aboard the Herjolfur to reflect on a satisfying start to his North Atlantic adventure.

At the age of 42, James has kept a clean sheet on his debut for IBV, his ninth club, and has savoured the win from a coaching perspective for the first time in a professional career of 25 years.

Not for him burgers and bling in the United States or easy cash and sunshine in the Middle East.

He has moved to a wind-battered volcanic rock off the south coast of Iceland — home to 4,500 people and eight million puffins — where he works as assistant to Hermann Hreidarsson.

Five years ago, they were both at Wembley winning the FA Cup with Portsmouth but on Sunday they started the Icelandic season with a 1-0 win in front of about a thousand fans and caught the last ferry of the day to the mainland.

‘Hermann has this way with his questions, they’re more like orders,’ said James, recalling the job offer, but he has taken to his new life and his striking image is becoming increasingly familiar in Iceland.

He has acquired celebrity status on a par with Bjork, the nation’s other resident of international fame.In a thick woolly cardigan and goalie gloves, he adorns the cover of a glossy lifestyle magazine and is the central figure in all the marketing shots for the Pepsi- sponsored Premier League.

Still, those on Heimaey, the largest of the Westman Islands, where he lives have found their star footballer a charming addition to a community which revolves around fish and exists in the shadow of an active volcano.

He always has a smile and a wave, they say, and is happy to stop for a chat. ‘You sit in one place for half an hour and you see half the island walk past,’ said James. ‘You’re constantly knocking windows.’

In the wilderness: James chose Iceland despite offers to continue playing elsewhere

Usually, however, he can be found at IBV’s tiny Hasteinsvollur ground, coaching boys and girls from the club’s youth team when not attending to first-team duties. Last week, this England international of 53 caps joined the effort to put up advertising boards in extreme weather conditions.

Two hours to kick-off and Heimaey is deserted. A man with a gun on his back climbs out of a field over a gate and a teenage boy in an IBV tracksuit, and Manchester United hat, kicks a football in the street. No-one else is to be seen and almost every shop is closed.

Man for the job(s): James is Hermann Hreidarsson's (left) assistant manager and goalkeeper

Safe hands: James played his first match in front of around 1,000 fans

'I wasn’t nervous but apprehensive, and it wasn’t to do with the crowd, it was about going out to perform.'

An hour or so later and James is the first out for the warm-up in a skin-tight Hummel tracksuit. He is wearing his hair large and is focused as he goes through the same visualisation process he did when he played for England.

‘I was absolutely buzzing,’ said James. ‘In the week building up, I was fine, really chilled out and then I woke up thinking, “Right, we’ve got a game, got to do this, got to do that”.

'It was refreshing because it would’ve been so easy to think, “Oh, I’m playing in Iceland in front of a few hundred”. I wasn’t nervous but apprehensive, and it wasn’t to do with the crowd, it was about going out to perform.

‘It was the new challenge. All right, the football’s not Premier League standard, the pitches are not like the Emirates, but that’s what everyone’s playing on. It felt good. I haven’t felt like this for ages.’

Behind one goal is the road into town. Behind the other is a golf course and the Atlantic Ocean. The wind whips straight off the sea down the pitch.

‘That wasn’t even a breeze,’ said Hreidarsson. The weather dictates life here and it has been a severe winter even by local standards.

James added: ‘We train out of the town a little bit and it has been horrendous. And apparently that wasn’t as bad as it gets.’ Last week, a friendly on the mainland was delayed by a day because the sea was too rough for the ferry.

‘It normally takes half an hour but if the waves are more than three foot it takes a detour and goes three hours to the left,’ he said. ‘They say the rule is that if the opposition can get the ferry over, the game goes ahead.’

Still got it: James played in the wind-battered surroundings while wearing his hair large

'In the week building up, I was fine,
really chilled out and then I woke up thinking, “Right, we’ve got a
game, got to do this, got to do that”'

James has an apartment in the centre of Heimaey. His job is full-time but he occupies free time with painting, reading, working towards an Open University degree in psychology and, of course, Twitter.

His nephew James Frayne is with him, hoping to rekindle a promising playing career which started at Liverpool’s academy.

There are several English players at IBV, including Ian Jeffs and Matt Garner, who played at Crewe, but have been in Iceland for nearly a decade and have started families in the Westman Islands.

Training is full-time and players supplement their earnings with part-time jobs. Jeffs coaches one of IBV’s youth teams and Garner works in a factory in the fisheries industry.

‘It’s hard in the winter,’ said Garner. ‘It’s cold, there’s not much to do and sometimes the boat doesn’t go for days on end.’ Islanders commit to a hard slog through the dark winter and ease off when summer comes.

Psyched up: James warmed up for the match the same way as he always has done

Picturesque: The setting that James now plays his football in Iceland

Watching on: The BV fans watch James in action

Different setting: James will have been used to playing in state-of-the-art stadiums not in front of mountains

Culture change: James walks out for his new club, BV, in Iceland

James is committed for a season which ends in September. He has agreed to join BT Sport’s coverage of the Barclays Premier League, a deal struck before his move to IBV, but has made an impact on his new team-mates.

'Wherever he goes he gets attention,’ said Jeffs. 'We were in the hot-tubs and as soon as he arrives, there’s about 50 kids rushing up to his pool. That’s the way it’s going to be. He handles it well. You can tell he’s been dealing with it for years.’

By kick-off time, more than a thousand are at Hasteinsvollur. The small stands are packed, there’s a drum and flags and others have gathered on vantage points. Four policemen, sitting in their patrol car, park by the road to watch the entire game.

The police blast their horn when Hreidarsson prepares to come on in the 86th minute. Fans stand to acclaim the prodigal son, back where his career began, but the player-manager spends two minutes removing a ring to satisfy the linesman and everyone has settled down by the time he comes on.

Man of many clubs: James spent time in the Manchester City team as well as a number of other sides

James can be heard issuing orders, encouraging and complaining. There is a flea in the ear for a ball-boy who is too slow and, when the referee asks the keeper to hurry up, he says: ‘Easy, come on, I’m 42 years old.’

There is a collective gasp of approval as he leaps athletically to pluck a corner from the sky and a ripple of unease when he ventures from goal towards the wing, but he wins his race to the ball and boots it on to the road.

On the final whistle, he punches the air, hugs his team-mates and strides off with an arm around Hreidarsson, a friend he claims is the ‘craziest’ person he has ever met. They form an unlikely managerial team but are serious about this venture.

Outbound: James left Bournemouth earlier this season for a new challenge

Hreidarsson said: ‘I called him up and I said, “I’m a manager now, I need an assistant manager, plus a goalkeeper, you fit the bill and you’re coming over”, and that was it.

‘Once he came over he was very keen. He saw the facilities and how hard we train and how we want to do everything properly. He’s a good pro. He’s been a pro for 26 years and he saw something that suited him. He wants to get into management and this is the start for him.’

When James flew to Iceland for a closer look at the club, Hreidarsson met him in Reykjavik but it was too wet and windy to sail to Heimaey, so they spent three days on the mainland, visiting the waterfalls, geysers, thermal pools and some of the trendy bars and music venues of the capital.

James has since declared his love for Icelandic rock music but is growing impatient to see the Northern Lights and he seems to be blaming Hreidarsson for their delay as if he might claim it is a breach of contract.

Glory days: James lifted the FA Cup with Hreidarsson at Wembley

'The games only go ahead if the waves aren't too bad '

‘It’s a beautiful country,’ said James. ‘I love it, absolutely. I’ve never been an inner-city fan.’ He may be hooked on fresh air, open spaces and cutting-edge cool but it is the chance to coach which has fired his imagination.

‘I would never have just come over here to play games,’ he added. ‘It’s a long way for a game of football.

‘The experience of playing abroad might be worth it, but I’ve got nine hundred and seventy something games behind me and there has never been a great desire to reach a thousand.

‘The attraction was to be part of the coaching set-up. I came to do the coaching. My real goal is to develop our younger keepers and get one of them through for the first team. If that happens this season, fantastic.

‘There’s plenty of opportunity to do stuff. I’ll coach anyone, players from the youth team or the women’s teams. I’ve told them if anyone wants to do some individual work, tell me and we’ll do it.

‘Last week I was doing three sessions some days.’

It has started well and after the opening-day win against IA, strong opposition from Akranes just north of Reykjavik, the locals were wondering aloud if Hreidarsson and James might deliver the club’s first title since 1998.

They are starting to believe. Then again, in Iceland, more than half the population believes in elves.